The House of Lords and ideological politics
Subtitle: Lord Salisbury's referendal theory and the Conservative Party, 1846-1922
By: Corinne Comstock Weston.
Series: Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society ;; v. 215
Publisher: American Philosophical Society
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Philadelphia, PA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 242
Subjects: Salisbury, Robert Cecil, marquess of, 1830-1903; Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords -- History -- 19th century; Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords -- History -- 20th century; Conservative Party (Great Britain) -- History; Prime ministers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Conservatism -- Great Britain -- History; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1901-1910; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1910-1936
Description: This study of ideological politics in Victorian and Edwardian England centers on a referendal theory promoted by the great Lord Salisbury when he opposed William Gladstone's Liberal governments. It was subsequently carried forward in the form of the referendum by Salisbury's son-in-law and ideological heir, the second Lord Selborne. Salisbury is today recognized as the most successful electorally of Conservative leaders.

Selborne, though not as well known to historians, had a high contemporary reputation as an imperial proconsul who had united South Africa. According to the referendal theory, the house of lords had a duty to refer disputed legislation to the electorate when the house of commons, in the lords' judgment, lacked a mandate for the measure in question. That is, the lords' political barometer was not the commons, as Gladstone contended, but the nation at large.

If this proposition prevailed, the lords could freely exercise an independent legislative veto in an age of expanding democracy. Not until the Liberals passed the Parliament Act (1911) were they able to counter the theory effectively. But well before this stage was reached, Selborne's advocacy of the referendum was challenged by another Conservative leader, Lord Curzon, who had served for a decade as viceroy of India.

The rivalry that followed two imperial proconsuls provides this study with one of its most provocative and illuminating themes.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.